THE TRANSCENDENTAL JOURNEY

Dimension Eleven is a progressive metal band from Poland who was formed in 2013. Other than releasing 2 singles over the years, "The Transcendental Journy" is the first full length album from the band, which was released in early 2019. The two singles that were released previously are included on this album; "Point of No Return ? Part 1" was released in 2013, and "Stardust" released in 2016. All of the other tracks are original to this album. The album contains 7 tracks with a run time of almost 32 minutes.

The album begins with an introductory track "Beneath the Alien Dreams". Made up mostly of dark sounding keyboards, the track is an ominous sounding beginning that goes on for over 2 minutes before flowing into "Stardust". The lushness of the introductory track drop off, there are a few atmospherics, then the heavy guitars and drums take off with rapid fire riffs and drums. Vocals are clean but in sections, they venture close to screaming, but not quite. The guitar has the most influence on the heavy track, but synths knit everything together. The sound is definitely progressive and heavy, with some great progressive sounds. The vocals aren't bad, but stay mostly in a mid-range, venturing to a higher range every so often, and there is the occasional addition of vocal effects from time to time.

"Superreality" begins with soft piano and vocals. Suddenly the band kicks in with heaviness and a background screaming vocal that appears on occasion, but mostly for support and with short bursts. There are some interesting rhythmic patterns at times that keep things unique. Later, there are trade offs between clean and dirty vocals. As with the previous track, the guitar provides heavy riffs while the keyboard keeps it all flowing. "Delusions" is a short intermediate instrumental, mostly on piano with some dark effects. The longest track "Divine" follows with a 9+ minute runtime. The track starts with atmospheric synths and effects, a soft guitar comes in and things slowly build until a more mellow sounding vocal starts. When the electric guitar riff comes in, things become more intense and emotional. There is a good mix of thumping guitar riffs and synths which give a slightly symphonic feel. At six minutes, things calm a bit with another piano solo backed by drums and synths, but things soon quicken and intensify again. As the track continues, it almost approaches a cinematic feel.

"Awaken" is another short interlude that is a spacey track with atmospheric effects. The last track is the oldest track "Point of No Return ? Part 1: Far From Beyond Eternal Depths". It follows the same pattern of the longer tracks starting off with minimal effects and synths and soon intensifying with heavy guitar and the full band. The track sound like it has the right idea, but seems a bit choppy. There are clean and dirty vocals throughout. As before, there is a slight symphonic feel to the music.

Overall, it's not a bad album or effort, but it does feel like there could be more growth and improvement with fleshing things out a bit, improving some of the rough cuts and vocals. It does have pretty much everything it needs to be progressive metal, but could use more ingenuity to set it apart on a track by track basis. It is also too short, but in this case it might work to the benefit of the band as they expand their sound to move away from the predictable nature of the longer tracks. Otherwise, it's a good effort for a debut album. 3 stars.